Let us, instead of puzzling ourselves as to how the Lamb of God takes
away the sins of the world, believe that he knows, and that he lives,
and cry to him as to the living God,--Lamb of God, who takest away
the sins of the world, have mercy on us, and take our sins away.
And let us beseech God this day, graciously to behold his family, the
nations of Christendom, for which our Lord Jesus Christ was contented
to be betrayed into the hands of wicked men, and suffer death upon
the cross. Let us ask this, even though we do not fully understand
what Christ's death on the cross did for mankind. That was the
humble, childlike, really believing spirit of the early Christians.
God grant us the same spirit; we need it much in these very times.
For if we are of that spirit, my friends, then, instead of tormenting
our minds as to the how and why of Christ's sacrifice on the cross,
we shall turn our hearts, and not merely our minds, to the practical
question--What shall we do? If Christ died for us, what shall we do?
What shall we ask God to help us to do? To that the second collect
gives a clear answer at once--Serve the living God.
And how? By dead works? By mere outward forms and ceremonies,
church-goings, psalm-singings, sermon-hearings? Not so. These are
right and good; but they are dead works, which cannot take away sin,
any more than could the gifts and sacrifices, the meats and drinks of
the old Jewish law.
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