FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER
TRINITY.
In the Gospel for this day, Mercy, another of the Christian virtues,
is set forth in the words of our Lord, beginning, "Be ye therefore merciful,
as your Father also is merciful," enforced by the proverbs of the blind
leading the blind, the disciple not being above his Master, and of the
mote and the beam. The Collect also refers to the mercy of our heavenly
Father, and seems to have been suggested by the Gospel. But, as on
the preceding Sunday, the Epistle seems to have been selected with reference
to a time when the Church was passing through some great tribulation, and
when Christians needed frequently to be reminded that they had here no
continuing city, but must look beyond the sufferings of this present time
to the glory hereafter to be revealed.
It is possible that the Gospel may have been selected under the influence
of similar circumstances, an age of martyrdoms suggesting to those who
had so clear a vision of Christ's example the duty of mercy and love towards
their persecutors. For themselves they could only look to that future
bliss which was to outweigh the present suffering: for the Church of succeeding
days they could leave such a legacy as St. Stephen did, when he prayed
with his dying lips, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." The
INTROIT for the day seems equally to reflect an age of persecution [Psalm
27:1,2].
