"This means of grace": An early PECUSA Lenten Sermon

In this third Lenten sermon from Cornelius Duffie - rector of Saint Thomas, New York City 1824-27 - we see how the Old High tradition reverenced "the reading of the Holy Scriptures as a prominent mean of grace". The same Old High affirmation would be seen in Jelf's 1844 Bampton Lectures. It is a reminder of how the Old High tradition embodied the teaching of the Book of Homilies' 'A Fruitful Exhortation to the Reading and Knowledge of holy Scripture' and the piety of the Prayer Book's petition, "that, with meek heart and due reverence, they may hear, and receive thy holy Word".

I have now completed what I proposed in setting before you the reading of the Scriptures as a mean of grace. Here, then, is a plain duty, accessible to all, and easy of performance; one which has the promise and assurance of God's blessing, and which is, in itself, calculated to promote holy thoughts, good dispositions, heavenly desires. If we neglect this mean of grace, we do so at our great peril, and to our great disadvantage; and we shall have reason to complain only of ourselves, if we feel no inclination to God's service, no delight in his commandments. But "if we diligently incline our ear unto wisdom, and apply our heart to understanding; if we seek her as silver, and search for her as for hid treasures, then shall we understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God." Then will our thoughts, instead of resting upon earth and its vanities, be raised to heaven, and its abiding joys; a clear knowledge of our duty will lead us to its performance; and a sense of the advantage of obeying God, will give us a delight in his service; instead of listlessness and indifference, ardent feelings of piety and of love, will be excited in our bosom; the dominion of sin will be weakened, tranquillity and peace imparted, to the conscience, and in the place of those apprehensions of the future, and those fears of the grave, which oppress the irreligious mind, there will be spread in our hearts a joyful confidence in God, and a hope full of immortality through the merits of his Son.

(The painting is George Harvey, 'Nightfall, St. Thomas Church, Broadway, New York', c. 1837.)

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