Trinity Sunday. "We worship One God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity."— All coldly round our quiet homes We hear the wind in winter blow, And, when the winter passes by, The bright green leaves come back in Spring, There's mystery in every thing. If then the flowers beneath his feet The awful things of God Most High! The babe sits on his Mother's knee, His trusting spirit holds it true. Thus ever meek, confiding still, Men must be children all their days; Then let our Father's honoured creed And hold we fast, in word and deed, With thrilling heart, and bending knee, The FATHER, SON, and HOLY GHOST. -A. C. C. F. H. LIVES OF THE APOSTLES AND EVANGELISTS. ST. MATTHEW. St. Matthew, also called Levi, though spoken of repeatedly as a Roman officer, was in reality a Hebrew, and many have supposed a Galilean. He was by trade a publican, and as some of you are very likely to misunderstand the true meaning of that word, I will here explain it to you. The Roman tax-gatherers were called publicans. They were the receivers of the public money-officers of the revenue,-men employed in collecting the impositions so hateful to the people, especially the Jews; first from the tyranny and oppression they generally used, and secondly, because the Jews considered themselves a free people, and that they had received their freedom from Jehovah Himself. "We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man," was their reply to the Saviour, when He declared, "The truth that should make them free." Nor did the Herodians, and Galileans submit to the impositions of these publicans, or tax-gatherers, without much impatience; for besides the obnoxious manner in which the taxes were collected, they did not consider it lawful to pay tribute to a foreign power, as they clearly shewed by the question they put to the Saviour, "Is it lawful to give tribute to Cæsar or no." The publicans, from their fraudulent and iniquitous practices, were considered as heathens, even by their own people. When our blessed Lord, speaking of a hardened sinner, whom neither private reproof, nor the open censure and admonition of the Church could effect, makes use of the words, "Let him be to thee as an heathen-man, and a publican." He may have alluded to a common proverb among the Jews, "Take not a wife out of that family in which there is a publican, for they are all publicans;"-thieves, oppressors, and notorious sinners. St. Matthew was following this dishonest calling when our Saviour first noticed him; "And as He passed by, He saw Levi, (or Matthew) the son of Alpheus, sitting at the receipt of custom, and said unto him, 'Follow Me.' And he left all, rose up, and followed Him." Now, there is something peculiarly striking in the arrangement of these last words, which you may not have remarked before; "left all" is placed before "rose up," and it seems as if the expressions had been purposely so placed, to shew us, that the heart and affections must first be detached from worldly gain and dishonest practices, and then the outward actions will, as a matter of course, be in accordance with the inward principles. summons. A publican's trade, though fraudulent and dishonest, was nevertheless a very profitable one; and yet there seemed to be no hesitation on the part of St. Matthew, in obeying the Saviour's And even in this sudden determination to follow Christ, he well knew the exchange he was temporally making,wealth, for poverty,-powerful and rich masters, for a naked and despised one, the upper seat, for the lowest place; all these were given up to enable him to embrace a more holy life. If he had not "left all" before he had followed the Saviour, his heart might still have clung to his earthly treasure, and found no room for Christ. The sacred narrative tells us, that immediately after St. Matthew's conversion, he made his Divine Master "a great feast in his own house," where the Pharisees, who took every opportunity of disputing the teaching and doctrines of Christ, put this question to Him, "Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners?" His gracious answer has poured balm into many a broken and contrite heart, "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." After St. Matthew's election to the Apostleship, he continued with his Divine Master until His Ascension, though the sacred writings record nothing remarkable of him during that period. For eight years after that great event which our Church still commemorates, he preached in different parts of Judea, but subsequently left the Holy Land to convert the Gentile world. Before his departure, the Jewish converts entreated him to write the History of our Saviour, and leave it behind him, as an imperishable record of those truths he had so often delivered to them in his sermons. This record which has been transmitted to us, and which is called "The Gospel according to St. Matthew," was originally written in Hebrew; afterwards it was translated into Greek, by one of the disciples. When the Greek translation was received and admitted, the Hebrew copy was chiefly owned, and used by a middle sect between the Jews and Christians, called Nazaraci. Like the Jews they adherred to the rites and ceremonies of the Mosaic law,-like the Christians they confessed Christ, and embraced His religion, and hence this Gospel has been called both, "The Gospel according to the Hebrews," and "The Gospel according to the Nazarenes." After St. Matthew left Judea, he travelled about from place to place, and was much in Ethiopia; the other places are not known with any degree of certainty. We are well assured that he laboured indefatigably in his Master's service, and finally suffered martyrdom in a city of Ethiopia, called Naddabar. The manner of his death is not known, though it is generally believed he was slain with an halbert. Now, when we read of the disciples of our Blessed Lord-of apostles, prophets, saints, and martyrs, we must see in their lives and actions, their faith and self-denial, so many lessons for us to learn in the school of heavenly wisdom; and we must learn these lessons through the teaching of God's Holy Spirit, which can alone be obtained by faithful and fervent prayer. St. Matthew is a remarkable instance of the power of religion over the human mind. His subsequent contempt of the world he had served too long with an undivided and unrenewed heart. is shewn by his exemplary temperance, and abstinence from all earthly pleasures and enjoyments, nay, even from the most ordinary conveniences, and accomodations of it. He lived as became the followers of Him, Who "had not where to lay His head." Do you think, my dear children, that you have ever been called to follow the Saviour? Indeed you have, and though you were an infant, and so, unconscious of the call at the time it was made at your Baptism,-yet others responded to it for you— in your name. You have now had the nature of that solemn call explained to you at various times; you will, before very long, have an opportunity which you cannot miss, or cast from you, of taking the vows then made for you, on yourself. Do not then, let the world, and the things of the world, engage you too entirely now, for there may never come a time when you can "leave all;" and if you cannot, like St. Matthew, at the Saviour's bidding, "leave all," so neither can you "rise up, and follow Him." -00 Pride is its own punishment, for nothing makes men more contemptible in the eyes of others.-Anony. Let us incessantly bear in mind, that the only thing we have really to be afraid off is, fearing anything more than God.-Book of the Fathers. On parent knees, a naked new-born child! Weeping thou sat'st, whilst all around thee smiled; So live, that sinking to thy last long sleep, Calm thou mayest smile, whilst all around thee weep. -00 QUESTIONS ON THE FIRST LESSONS FOR SUNDAYS. Trinity Sunday, June 3rd, 1849.-GEN. I.-For Questions, see those for Septuagesima Sun., p. 36. GEN. XVIII.-Where are the plains of Mamre? [ch. xiii. 18.] Who appeared to Abraham? [Three angels. Heb. xiii. 2.] How then did the Lord appear to Abraham? [The three were an emblem of the Trinity, and therefere the Church appoints this lesson for to-day, but the One was the Angel of the covenant, Christ Himself. See Mal. iii. 1.] Prove that it was Christ. [See v. 13, 14, where it is shewn that the Lord knew Sarah's heart; and see John i. 13, and vi. 46, to prove that it was not God the Father. God the Son also appeared to Moses, (Exod. xxxiii. 18-23, and xxiv. 5-8) and to Elijah, 1 Kings, xix. 11-14.] What was the difference between Abraham's laugh, (c. xvii. 17,) and Sarah's? The one was the laugh of joy, the other of unbelief.] What do we learn from Abraham's intercession? [The efficacy and the duty of faithful prayer. See James v. 16.]First Sun. a. Trin, June 10.-JOSH. X.-On what other occasion was a similar miracle wrought? [2 Kings, xx. 8-11. Observe.-Joshua must have had a full assurance from God that his prayer would be granted before he spoke in the hearing of the people.] Upon the utter destruction of the Canaanites, see Q. on Deut. vii., in p. 98. Of whom was Joshua the type? [Of Jesus Christ. |