Divine visitation

“ There is a time of visitation when those things which belong to our peace may be known by us, and known to good purpose. When we enjoy the means of grace in great plenty, and have the word of God powerfully preached to us—when the Spirit strives with us, and our own consciences are startled and awakened—then is the time of visitation, which we are concerned to improve. ”

“ Be faithful to your flock in parochial visitation, with godly counsel and timely prayer. Let the sound of your footsteps on the stairs be music to the widow and orphans in the garret, the light of your countenance sunshine in the dismal basement, and your presence a benediction at the bed of death. Take heed to yourself, and suffer not your spirit to be chafed and soured by adverse criticism or unfriendly speech. Allow nothing to hinder the regularity of your private devotions, or rob you of your daily communion with Christ. ”

“ Ecclesiastical visitations, originally the periodical journeys of personal inspection to ascertain the temporal and spiritual condition of each parish, form part of the functions of an archbishop, a bishop and an archdeacon. All charitable corporations are at law subject to visitation ”

“ When we pray, in the Office for the Visitation of the Sick, that God would ‘preserve and continue this sick member in the unity of the Church,’ the prayer breathes the very spirit of ancient piety. It is an unspeakable help, in dealing with a sick man, to be able to appeal to his own conscious and sincere membership in the Body of Christ. The Visitation Office is ‘peculiarly a ministration for those who have been trained beforehand in the fulness of Church life and privileges.’74 Herein, as often, the Prayer-book sets up an ideal standard. ”

“ The last visitation of God was, that dogs licked the blood of the one, and did eat the flesh of the other. In few words then we understand, what difference there is betwixt the visitation of God upon the reprobate, and his visitation upon his chosen. The reprobate are visited, but never truly humbled, nor yet amended; the chosen being visited, they sob, and they cry unto God for mercy; which being obtained, they magnify God's name, and afterwards manifest the fruits of repentance. ”

“ Such troubles are called visitations, for it is in this way that God visits His wandering children, and seeks to bring them back to the right way. “For, whom the Lord loveth, He chastiseth” (Hebr. 12, 6) . Millions of the blessed would not now be in heaven, if God had not visited them with tribulations in this world. ”

“ I trust there are many under that Visitation, which if faithfully attended to, will make them quick of Understanding in the Fear of the Lord, and qualify with Firmness to be true Patterns of the Christian Life, who in Living and Walking may hold forth an Invitation to others, to come out of the Entanglements of the Spirit of this World. ”

“ We fly, at least in spirit, to these holy places now profaned, and offer on thy altars there the fervent love and adoration of thy holy Mother, in compensation for the injuries ever done thee by the Jews, by hereties and bad Christians. Eternal praise and thanksgiving be to the most holy and most divine sacrament. ”

“ If a man die suddenly and strangely, he has died by the visitation of God. But if he be saved from death strangely and suddenly, it does not occur to us to call that a visitation, and to say with Scripture, ‘The Lord has visited the man with His salvation.’ If the cholera comes, or the crops fail, we say,—God is visiting us. ”

“ I have an humble request to your lordship, that you will please to excuse me if I cannot be at the triennial visitation; for, my lord [1] and lady continually residing at the lodge, I am obliged to a constant attendance there. ”

“ No child kneels at night to repeat his simple prayer but God bends over him and blesses him. The wonder of it is summed up in our Lord's words: "The Father Himself loveth you," which are as an open door into the inner sanctuary, an invitation to enter to those who are hesitating on the threshold of the Holy of Holies. ”

“ Every priest must feel that the church benches, or the sanctuary, with their silence, their every part awakening and reminding the soul that this is the house of God, this is the gate of Heaven, are places most suitable for prayer and are great aids to fervent prayer. The thought of the presence of Christ with His adoring angels, to whose songs of praise the priest should unite himself, should help wonderfully in the devout recitation of the Hours. ”

“ But we therefore go to church, that we may there ask for the pardon of our sins, and assist in the divine praises: as shall be said in the proeme of the fifth book, and that there we may hear God's proceedings [Footnote 185] with the good and the ill, and learn and receive the knowledge of God, and that we may there feed on the Lord's body. ”

“ The Priest prays in the sacristy, and says:—
O Lord, Thou hast given us sanctification by partaking of the all-holy body and precious blood of Thine only-begotten Son; give us the grace and gift of the All-holy Spirit. Enable us to lead blameless lives; and guide us unto the perfect redemption, and adoption, and the everlasting joys of the world to come. For Thou art our sanctification, and we ascribe glory unto Thee, the Father, and the Son, and the All-holy Spirit, now, henceforth, and for evermore.
The People.
Amen.
The Priest.
Peace be to all. ”

“ Blessed art thou, O Church, for behold the commemoration of thy sanctification has been celebrated: for the Father has had pleasure in thy sons and daughters, and the Son has renewed thy foundations, and the Holy Ghost the Comforter has descended and sanctified thee by His grace, and set up within thee priests to preach the true faith, and has delivered unto thee His sacraments as a pledge of the forgiveness of thy children. ”

“ Go then to the Church, and bid thy vain thoughts and business of the world keep outside thereof: and at thine incoming, say to thy soul, "Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord, and thou shalt hear His Voice, and behold His temple." Holy Church is the entrance and gate of Heaven. After, fall down before the Cross, and honour Him because He was slain on the Cross, and say "We adore Thee, O Christ, and bless Thee, because by Thy holy Cross Thou didst redeem the world." And then before thou uprisest, have in thy mind how hotly His love burned, That died for thee on the Cross. ”

“ There, in the temple built to his name according to the pattern he has revealed, baptisms and all the ordinances necessary on earth in the work of salvation for the living and the dead, are performed by divine authority, and there the Spirit of God is poured out in rich effusion, bearing witness to the humble of heart and contrite of spirit that they and their labors of love are accepted of him and sealed and recorded in heaven. ”

“ And so at the close of the Holy Eucharist celebrated in the sanctuary, after the "memorial" has been made before God which His Son "hath commanded us to make," and we have been "partakers of His most blessed Body and Blood," this is the Blessing with which the Church lets us depart—a blessing which carries the thought up to what, in its fullness, waits for us in heaven: "The Peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord." ”

“ But here among a small section of men and women in the Rocky Mountains, gathered from all the nations of the earth, there is an understanding that this angel has come, and should not the world be pleased at the assumption; for if they are delighted in reading the account of this angel's probable visitation, why not take comfort and delight in the thought that angelic visitation may again become general or partial, as the case of necessity may require. ”

“ Now, in reading these prophecies concerning the future angelic visitations that are to take place in the history of mankind, I have no doubt that those who have pondered over these prophecies have thought that in these visitations they would find the key which should unlock the past, the present and the future, and be of great value in the salvation of the human family—salvation from ignorance, from sin, and from death. ”

“ Then the priest again goes to the right side of the altar and reads:
THE PRAYERS AFTER COMMUNION *Let us pray: We have been filled with Your gifts, O Lord. Grant that they may make us clean and strong. May the gift of this divine Sacrament keep us pure, O Lord. Through the help of the Blessed Virgin, of St. Joseph, of Sts. Peter and Paul and all the saints, may it free us from all evil. ”

“ These repeated circlings of the altar, I was told, are intended as so many visits, each time they go round having the value of a visit. Many of these people seek the Pardon not only for themselves, but for friends who are unable to come. The absent confess and communicate at their parish church at home, and unite their intention with that of the person who makes the visit for them. ”

“ If ever Christ comes near us in spirit at all, we say, it is when in the quiet of the sanctuary we reach out hands of prayer and desire to Him. The link between our worship and our Lord is strong and obvious. ”

“ And again—The Lord has ordained that all the most holy things pertaining to the salvation of the dead, and all the most holy conversations and correspondence with God, angels, and spirits, shall be had only in the sanctuary of His holy Temple on the earth, when prepared for that purpose by His Saints; and shall be received and administered by those who are ordained and sealed unto this power, to hold the keys of the sacred oracles of God. ”

“ Our gathering together, the kind of Gospel that is preached, the disposition and feeling to build Temples, a strong impression that seems to rest upon all the people, is something in itself very remarkable.
Now in relation to our gathering, who is there anywhere else in the world that feel as the Latter-day Saints do? You do not find it anywhere, and nothing but the Spirit of God operating upon the minds of the people could have induced them to gather together as they have done. This spirit was imparted, as the Holy Ghost is, by the laying on of hands, through the medium of the Priesthood. ”

“ You will find that all the saints have been enamoured of this sweet devotion. On this earth we cannot find a more brilliant jewel, or a more lovely treasure, than Jesus in the Sacrament. O how delightful it is to remain with faith, and with a tender devotion, at the foot of the altar, and to converse familiarly with Jesus Christ, who dwells in our tabernacles for the purpose of hearing the prayers of all who visit him! ”

“ I was sent for early, a few mornings ago, to visit a pious member of my own church, and in the evening of the same day, at the request of a friend, I went to see a member of a Dissenting church, a very godly man; and, to the rejoicing of my heart, I found them breathing the same spirit—avowing the same belief—deriving consolation from the same source—and giving utterance to the joyful anticipations of mingling their grateful feelings together in the same heavenly temple, where they hope to serve the Lord day and night in harmony and peace. ”

“ Do you, parents, find that your children ramble about the lanes with idle companions instead of coming to Church on Sundays, that they do not love the worship of God, that they do not fear God, and reverence His sanctuary? ”

“ The reverent worshippers assemble morning and evening, in all the pride of their paint and feathers, but there is no hideous idol inside; nay! they worship the invisible One, whom they can see even with closely shut eyes. To watch the men and women, with erect bearing, and each walking in the other's footsteps, enter the church, is a sight well worth the seeing. ”

“ I feel perfectly at home, in fact I feel at home wherever I meet with the Saints of God—in this country, or in other countries, but this is the grand home, this is the home for the gathering of the Saints of the Most High God, the place where the oracles of God dwell, and where the Spirit of God is preeminently poured out, where we have come to learn, of the great Jehovah, the sacred things pertaining to, and associated with His kingdom. ”

“ Once in a while, people have this view break upon them in572 meeting, or in some sick hour, or in some revival moment. That is a blessed visitation which brings to the soul a realization of the capacity of God to love imperfect beings with infinite love, and which enables a man to adapt this truth to his shame-hours, his sorrow-hours, his love-hours and his selfish hours, and to find all the time that there is in the revelation of the love of God in Christ Jesus all-sufficient food for the soul. It is, indeed, almost to have the gate of heaven opened to you. The treasure is inexhaustible. ”

“ We close our visitations, convinced that much prayer and faithful labor must be put up and put forth before this people will be weaned from their idols and their Sabbath-breakings, and brought to the feet of Christ. ”

“ In connection with your visits to the Blessed Sacrament, make a spiritual communion, renewing in the most lively manner your desire to receive our dear Lord into your heart. Remember, for love of us Jesus remains night and day in the tabernacle, ardently desiring to communicate Himself to our souls, and bestow His graces upon us. Ah! what monstrous forgetfulness and ingratitude, if, when we can easily visit Him, we neglect to go to Him during the day to pay our homage and adoration to Him in return for all His love. ”