"Let all the appointed means of grace be faithfully resorted to": an early PECUSA sermon for the New Year
From the sermons of Cornelius Roosevelt Duffie, Rector of Saint Thomas, New York City, 1824-27, an extract from a sermon for the New Year , on the text from Ps.101:1 "My song shall be of mercy and judgment". Two aspects of this extract are particularly noteworthy. The first is the robust realism of its account of our earthly life, at the beginning of a new year. This reflects the Prayer Book: "Defend us thy humble servants in all assaults of our enemies ... and also that by thee we being defended from the fear of our enemies ... From lightning and tempest; from plague, pestilence, and famine; from battle and murder, and from sudden death, Good Lord, deliver us ... We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out". Such a robust realism addresses the uncertainties that surround us as we enter another year and its intimations of our mortality. Mindful of the anxieties and uncertainties of our own times, we can see a need for the P...