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COMBINING THE LABORS OF THE CLERGY AND LAITY.

A SERMON,

DELIVERED BEFORE THE ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE

PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN THE DIOCESE

OF NEW YORK, OCTOBER 2, 1834.

BY THE REV. L. P. BAYARD, A. M.

RECTOR OF ST. CLEMENT'S CHURCH, NEW YORK.

1835.

SERMON.

Ps. xc. 17.-" And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us; and establish thou the work of our hands upon us: Yea, the work of our hands establish thou it."

THAT Moses was the author of this Psalm, appears to have been the opinion of many eminent critics of antiquity. All the versions ascribe it to him; and yet the limitation of the average term of human life to the span of seventy or eighty years, renders it so improbable that it should have been penned at an age when they often reached one hundred and twenty, that many judicious writers have referred its authorship to some inspired person who wrote it during, or after, the captivity-probably when they were engaged in rebuilding the temple at Jerusalem; and this may be the work of their hands, which, in the text, they pray God to bless and prosper.

Whatever uncertainty may rest upon the occasion which called forth this sacred elegy, which so pathetically sets forth the fragility of human life, there can be but one opinion as to the appropriate use of its concluding strain, on the present occasion. It is with a mingled variety of strong and anxious feelings that the office is undertaken, to which your preacher is quite unexpectedly called, and at a notice indeed far too limited for such a calm and deliberate view of the duty imposed, as its importance so

justly demands, or, as the present solemn convocation of the church has so just a right to expect. Casting himself, therefore, wholly upon the indulgence of his respected auditory-and placing all his trust in that Divine assistance and encouragement which the text invokes, he will solicit your attention, for a short time, to a consideration of the WORK before us which combines, in its required agency, the judicious and zealous exertions of the clergy and of the laity.

For this work, all the revelation of the law and of the gospel, shed forth the light of divine truth. For this work was bespoken at Heaven's high behest, the labors of redeeming love which were engaged "in gathering together in one, the children of God that were scattered abroad;" and thus called out from the midst of an apostate world, they become a chosen generation, a peculiar people, who should show forth the praises of their divine deliverer. The name which is given to this company of faithful people, is the CHURCH OF GOD. "Feed the church of God," (says the great apostle,) "which he purchased with his own blood."

And it would hence seem obvious that it cannot be an institution of man's device, or subject to his will or caprice, to choose, to change, or reject. It is "of God," and like all the works of his hands, we are to consider it perfect of its kind. It is "of God," and claiming his protection, it is assured of indefectibility in the promise, that "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it," and "Lo I am with you always, even unto the end of the world," that is, with those who "continue in the apostle's doctrine, and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and in prayers ;" with those who "hold to the one

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