"Chosen and appointed periods in our annual course": A Hackney Phalanx Sermon for Saint Bartholomew's Day

From A Course of Sermons for the Festivals and Fasts of the Church of England (1821) by Joseph Holden Pott - associated with the Hackney Phalanx - a sermon for Saint Bartholomew's Day. Preaching on the Gospel of the Day (Luke 22:24-30), and pointing to the accounts given by "ancient writers" of the apostle's "labours and his martyrdom", Pott explains (in fine Old High fashion - and note the reference to Cranmer's wisdom) how this festival, together with the festivals of the other apostles, edifies and encourages us in the life of Faith:

In addition, therefore, to the stated Sabbaths which rank first in dignity and order, and make such indispensable and welcome claims upon the loan of time, the żeal and wisdom of the early ages have marked the Christian calendar with many profitable invitations to religious exercises and devotion; to public prayer and private recollections, as each one may be able. At such times the lives of those who stand distinguished in the page of Scripture claim from us a special application of the mind and thoughts. Such seasons, when they had exceeded all due bounds, and had been overrun with legends which have no place or record in the sacred Volume, were wisely and suitably retrenched in our own Church. The life and actions of our Blessed Lord, and those of such as stood nearest to him in connexion, and nearest too in love, now form the topics and examples to which the chosen and appointed periods in our annual course have been adapted. Such seasons are accompanied with many means which are well calculated to promote our spiritual welfare. What can be more persuasive than the known examples of the faithful who have gone before us in the paths of service. A consolatory assurance thus arises to us, reminding us that although we come late into the vineyard, and do not bear the heat and burden of the day in those raging persecutions and calamities which marked the lives of the first Confessors, yet we shall receive the recompence of every diligent endeavour in the same great cause of truth and righteousness.